Lou Mu spent a long time entangled with the strange couple in front of him, but couldn't find a way to leave the Cui residence even after a whole day.
According to Song Shiyi's wishes, Tang Nian slept in their courtyard for one night, and the next day she helped Song Shiyi with her work for a morning. She found an opportunity to say that she had other things to do, and was finally able to step out of their surveillance range.
Perhaps not, but all the women on the street were staring at her intently.
But Tang Nian's most important task right now is to find Ming Huan.
Ming Huan's condition was truly worrying to him. If he were an ordinary person, it wouldn't matter, but he was the divine beast Bifang. Even if he hadn't reached adulthood, he wouldn't be so easily affected.
Now that things have been put on hold, she can only hope that Minghuan is alert enough to realize something is wrong and find a chance to save himself.
This idea struck Tang Nian when she saw Ming Huan's empty room.
The whole city was eerie; where could he go alone?
With a blank expression, Tang Nian took out a compass, lit an incense stick, and the quickly burned ash fell onto the compass. Blue smoke rose from the ash and drifted straight in a certain direction.
This is a method of finding people that she learned from a Taoist priest. It is convenient, quick, and very suitable for tracking people in messy places.
Following the compass, Tang Nian circled several streets before finally finding Ming Huan's location more than ten minutes later.
With a roar, what came into view was Ming Huan raising his peach wood sword high and forcefully stabbing it into the water ghost that was half lying on the ground.
The next instant, the water ghost, which was barely recognizable as human, struggled violently. As it writhed, its body dissolved, and the malevolent energy gathered on its body quickly dissipated. The remaining part turned into mud and water and merged into the ground.
In a short while, only a puddle of water remained on the ground.
"Are you alright?" Tang Nian put away the compass and walked quickly closer. "I've been looking for you for ages, what happened?"
The question was not very clear because when she spoke, there were sounds of commotion and crying coming from not far away.
Amidst the cacophony of shouts, Tang Nian managed to glean information.
It turned out there was a delivery room right next door. The family members outside the door couldn't bear the shock and cried after just learning of the mother's death.
"We still couldn't keep them."
Ming Huan muttered something before turning his head to explain, "Just now, that water ghost tried to force its way into the pregnant woman's belly, and I wanted to save them."
It's strange, with so many water ghosts, why isn't there a single ghost messenger?
Because of the previous two encounters, Tang Nian didn't feel anything was wrong. She only said, "You still need to be more careful next time. You're not feeling well. If you go into the city alone and follow the ghosts and monsters, be careful not to get caught in their trap."
Ming Huan blinked slowly and nodded with a smile.
After chatting for a while, the two walked together toward the inn, whereupon he asked why Tang Nian hadn't appeared the day before.
"Madam Song, please let me stay here and help you get rid of the evil spirits in the courtyard." Tang Nian frowned. "Be careful while you're alone in the city."
Tang Nian couldn't say much; she couldn't trust Ming Huan now, so she could only save his life first.
"By the way, did no one look for you yesterday?"
Ming Huan didn't understand: "What? Who's looking for me?"
"Madam Song promised me she would send someone to the inn to inform you. Well then, neither of us will be in any trouble."
Tang Nian shook her head and stopped worrying about it.
After escorting Minghuan back to the inn, Tang Nian watched him go upstairs before quickly leaving amidst the innkeeper's ardent gaze and returning to the Cui residence.
There were too many odds and ends in the front yard, so Tang Nian followed Cui Wensong's path and entered from the back yard.
When Tang Nian returned to her room, she saw that the screen was swaying. She walked over and saw a dark area exposed on the wall next to the bed.
In that instant, Tang Nian raised her hand, a pale blue light enveloping it, ready to strike at any moment.
A few seconds later, a black child's hand reached out from inside the door, groping for support on the door frame, its body seemingly struggling to get out.
Tang Nian paused, lowered her hand, and even had the mind to remark, "You've gained weight in just a few days?"
The child inside finally managed to pull himself out of the gap at the junction, plopped down on Tang Nian's bedding, and haughtily snorted, "Senior sister, you're just jealous that I can eat good food. Let me tell you, some great chefs have recently come to the underworld, and you can't get any."
Tang Nian didn't know where to begin her rant.
It doesn't matter, she's not even human anyway.
"Have you finished dealing with matters in the underworld? What brings you here?"
Upon hearing this, the young prince waved his hands, his face looking as if he had eaten a bitter melon: "Senior sister, please don't mention it. If it weren't for helping you hide the ghost infection, I wouldn't have taken on the task of coming to this awful place."
"It's good that you're here. What's the situation in Lancheng?" Tang Nian asked as she sat down on the edge of the bed.
“The ghost messengers here in Lancheng are neglecting their duties, and they lie about the number of souls they have summoned every month. If I hadn’t been counting the number of ghosts, I don’t know how long they would have been kept in the dark.”
Speaking of this matter, the young prince was in a real bind.
“Previously, Lancheng only had many water ghosts. Since the water ghosts did not appear in front of people, the ghost messengers could not capture them. But a few days ago, Lancheng was gradually shrouded in a strange aura, and the entire city lost control. Sister Tang, you must have noticed this as well.”
“The water ghost burrows directly into the mother’s womb, is reborn, and loses all its memories, completing the cycle of reincarnation without needing the Reincarnation Well.” Tang Nian’s voice was somewhat heavy. “Even the Underworld can’t intervene?”
The young prince shook his head: "Not yet. Father suspects that Lancheng has been set up with a formation. He wanted to send a judge to the mortal world to investigate, but I stopped him."
Looking at the little prince's proud expression and his wobbly little feet, Tang Nian casually pinched his chubby little face.
"An array? I haven't sensed any array here?"
The child, who was less than half a person tall, jumped off the bed with his hands behind his back and paced back and forth in a pretentious manner.
"The formation is just our guess. If it's not, then we must find the culprit in order to solve the problem."
Tang Nian rested her chin on her hand and nodded seriously: "So impressive, no wonder you are the little prince, even your nonsense is more sophisticated than others."
The arrogant Little Yama King, used to playing the role of a haughty person, instantly lost his temper and muttered curses under his breath.
But nobody cared.
After a while, seeing that Tang Nian still didn't come to coax him, the young prince pouted, feeling it was pointless, and sat down next to Tang Nian to continue speaking.
"The location of the array's core is unknown. Based on our current understanding, it is centered around a certain place, with the magnetic field extending outwards from it."
"The water ghosts around Lancheng also seem to be coming this way on their own because of the formation. If it were just a gathering of lonely ghosts, Father wouldn't be so concerned."
"The important thing is that it was soon discovered that the information in the Book of Life and Death would change automatically, and the original names of the people would become increasingly faint. If we do not intervene, Lancheng will be separated from the Five Elements."
"Is it possible that the core of the formation is right here?" A bold idea flashed through Tang Nian's mind.
"Impossible." The young prince denied it without even thinking.
Tang Nian was still preoccupied with something: "Your Highness, did Master say what kind of formation this is? Why did Ming Huan also fall for it?"
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